A Day in the Life of the Kitty and the Spot
by foxtrotelly
Summary: Check out what these highly-trained agents do on R&R Thursdays. "So Sunspot, huh?" Natsume muses. "Did they name you that because you're mostly brown and stand out or was it a referral to the pattern of your underwear?" -EspionAlice #1


Hey there. So here's another one-shot I came up with quite some time one's for my non-FFN friend Isa J. too, btw. (:

**Disclaimer: ****Gakuen Alice copyright © Tachibana Higuchi, 2003-Present**

* * *

_**A Day in the Life of the Kitty and the Spot**_

_**by foxtrotelly**_

_~ For Ariisha-chan's birthday ~_

_This second one's for your transition to teenhood, little sis! You're growing up way too fast… *tries to stop happy tears*_

**(: (: (:**

**Day One: Security Measures, 2300 hours**

The Alice Vestibule, home to various artifacts, memorabilias, and works of the Gakuen Alice community echoes an eerie silence as one raven-haired boy silently and briskly walks through it. Getting to a tall, rather peculiar vase located at the end of the cavernous hall, the boy takes another look around to make sure that no one else is there.

Continuing on with his work, he reaches for something inside the antique porcelain figure. A muffled sort of grumbling shakes the marble floor a few seconds later as a square of the floor beside the vase parts to reveal a lock embedded onto a steel safe box.

He had already learned the lock combination the first time it was mentioned to him, and thanks to this, he is able to crack open the safe on his first try. Inside it is a red button. The raven-haired boy presses it and soon enough, a very small fraction of the ceiling parts way right at the very middle of the hall.

Without any further ado, he braces himself for a split nanosecond and leaps. His hands grab onto the edge of the opening and he hefts himself up easily to a passage of workways, that if treaded through correctly, leads straight to one of the countless secret rooms of the elusive structure.

The boy still seems to be up for it, though. If not, he looks as though he'd be glad to take on the challenge any day. He's been briefed about this, and as far as his photographic memory could take him, he estimates he'll be there in about three and a half minutes or so. Sparing one last scan of the vicinity, he finally concludes that his sharp (heat-detecting, infrared, and almost superpowered) eyes assure that nobody else is around.

Or so he thinks.

**:o**

From behind a life-size stone statue, a brown-haired girl silently watches as the boy before her disappears into the parting in the ceiling. The parting immediately closes the moment the boy is completely gone inside, the safe box on the floor below slamming shut along with it.

The girl knows the boy has what she was asked to come here for, and contrary to her organization's belief of how troublesome the mentioned lad usually is, his actions so far are now her ticket in.

**:o**

On his second tried passageway, Natsume chances upon the said secret room. It stands in its own surreptitious grandeur, completely empty except for a shatterproof glass case with a sealed box inside it at the center of the room.

Natsume leaps down from the ceiling, and as his job intended him to do, stands in guard right beside the mysterious case containing God-knows-what. He puts his Black Cat mask on.

Expectedly, he gets bored after the first few minutes. He knows they (mostly Persona) could give him something better than just some boring night shift at the school museum, but knowing his mentor's sadistic tendencies, Persona's most probably just doing this to punish him or something.

Or worse. The ruthless creep must definitely be finding an excuse to make try Natsume his signature (gagfest) espre –

_"Who the devil are you?" _Natsume furiously asks, his tone just as confused as he is because it's not every day when somebody just randomly drops by a secret chamber in the Alice Vestibule from the ceiling.

The perpetrator dons an all-black attire, complete with a hoodie, tights, and a wool-knit cap. Natsume has no idea whether it's a he or she, because the dark yellow-orange-colored mask that covered the upper-part of his/her face isn't much of a help either.

Natsume has a thing against hurting girls, but then he thinks about it carefully. The Anti-Alice Organization head honcho is a reported sexist, thus bringing him to the conclusion that he is, by popular fact, facing against another guy.

Meaning beating him to a pulp wouldn't be so hard on his ethics either.

Before Natsume can move, the guy suddenly soars right above him in a great bound almost similar to a grand _jeté,_landing behind him right across the case. Natsume turns quickly. He springboards off the glass, then launches himself at him.

Sure enough, the punk lays under Natsume's body grapple one blink of an eye later. The moment screams awkward on a whole lot of levels, and yet it only puzzles Natsume when he finds he isn't as reflexive to back away from the situation immediately. They stay like that for about a second or so, and during that briefest moment, Natsume makes out a prominent, fluttering sound almost like a racing heartbeat coming from his captive and a set of bright yet stony hazel brown eyes from under his mask.

"Get off me, Kitty!" the agent shrieks. Funny how his voice sounds much like a girl's. But then again, he had a flat chest and—

Something catches Natsume off guard. Rather, a whiff of something. Like the smell of fresh citrusy vanilla where a boyish musk should have been.

The AAO agent takes advantage of Natsume getting dazed. And with a bit too much force that seems oddly out-of-place in a much slender and petite body than Natsume's, he kicks Natsume at the gut and heaves him off, a scowl showing on the visible half of his face.

Despite that, Natsume still manages to get to his feet just as the agent does so as well. He knows a judo match before the case is badly in order, but much to his surprise, the guy, half a head shorter than him, grabs his shoulders and knees him where-it-hurts-the-most. The next thing he knows, he's flying through midair before his thoughts even get to process the fact that he was just lift tossed ten feet forward by some cocky little punk.

_"Hermes to Sunspot, report back to HQ ASAP once code CottonSocks is obtained. Over."_A female's voice rings loud and clear from where the agent stands, not even giving Natsume the chance to crumple around on the ground in pain because he suddenly wonders why anybody would even think of naming a highly-important – not to mention possibly dangerous – item of the Gakuen _'cotton socks'_. Though even from ten feet away, he can see that the voice was from a two-way receiver in the holster wrapped around the agent's waist.

Natsume dashes towards "Sunspot" right after, who has taken to kicking the glass with one quick, lithe swing of his foot. And with that, the high-grade shatterproof glass shatters into a million pieces. He takes the box inside and leaps up easily into the opening in the ceiling. Natsume follows, but by the time he gets to the ceiling passageway and gets a grab at the punk's ankle, Sunspot disappears into a void in the air.

In the almost pitch black shadows, Natsume can swear seeing a trace of polka-dotted underwear and a curl of chocolate brown hair sticking out from the wool-knit cap he just couldn't get to set on fire earlier.

And so there went the first major screw-up – no scratch that – the first screw-up he's had on the job. Come tomorrow, he just _has_ to make sure it would be his last as well.

It just had to be.

* * *

**Day Two: Covert Retrieval, 2100 hours**

Right to his left, the night sea sprays Natsume with a light mist of brine. To his right, piles of rotting metal stretch out on both sides as far as the eye could see.

He is somewhere far from the Academy, but in hindsight, the Gakuen never cared that much of letting their agents out in the open because they always, always _had_ to come back – whether their trips were mentioned to Persona or not. And so this seaside voyage, along with occasional trips to the manga store and catnip emporium (not in his school uniform), are attested to that.

Natsume already has his cat mask on, as he is dressed in jeans, a sweater, and running shoes for the night since as far as he's concerned, this _is_ a covert retrieval operation, after all.

Stealthily, he weaves his way through the night with the only the light of the few streetlamps lining the boardwalk as his guide.

**:o**

Half an hour later, he reaches a rusted over warehouse and without hesitation enters its wide-open doors. Inside, it is nothing different from the oxidated state it shows from the outside. A single bulb hanging low from one of the beams that run across the ceiling dimly lights the place. Large crates of something labeled as _'Explosive, handle with care'_are stacked against the far corners at the back of the room while scraps of junk litter the whole place. From overhead its corrugated tin roof looks like it could right about just fall on the ground.

Natsume continues to look around the place. Nobody seems to be around as he paces all over. He stops when something catches his eye just right behind one of the stack of crates. It is a small arched opening and he feels that it might just lead him to what he came here for.

Before deciding on blowing up the crates to clear the path, he checks to see what kind of explosives are actually inside.

…Turns out the AAO punks were idiotic enough to place fireworks inside. But just when he is a second from setting them off from fifty feet away, Natsume gets an idea.

**:o**

"Wait, so you're a girl?"

Mikan froze when this guy in a cat mask pushed his way in moments ago, but now she bristles in irritation. "I'd take that as a compliment, thanks." She straightens up and tries her best to glare at the Alice freak from behind her mask, keeping a defensive stance. "So what're you doing here, Kitty?"

"I'm not taking that as a compliment," the Catman says. "But I _am_ here to take back what you stole from us, _Spot_."

A sudden longing to punch the guy in front of her suddenly bubbles inside Mikan. She definitely isn't going to hold out on this jerk. "I'm definitely not going to hold out on you, jerk."

"Nice to see you again, too. I can't say I'm not surprised your little group's sending out a girl to do their chores this time," he remarks snidely, sounding like he has on a smirk.

"Bring it on then!"

Mikan wasn't lying when she said she wouldn't hold back. She places a lot of well-delivered judo/mixed martial arts attacks on Catman who keeps up by simply dodging and blocking them.

After a few minutes of lashing out however, Mikan slows down. In between some quick jabs, she snaps, "Why aren't you fighting back?"

He shrugs. "I dunno, principles?" Mikan backs him into a wall beside some more crates and a few other things, her mask now slightly askew. "Ooh, scary."

Rolling her eyes, Mikan grumbles, mostly to herself, "Right, right. Boys are just so _mature_ with their little man egos and stuff."

"Really now? I liked you better when you were all business and nada on the smart remarks part."

A bit of heat rises up to Mikan's face. _Like? Really?_"I don't know what you're talking about," she sniffs indignantly. All the while, she still keeps Catman firmly pinned to the wall.

"And I thought you were a boy back then," he drawls, slowly closing the distance between them. Mikan catches a sweet scent from where the boy's mouth should be.

"You freakshow dolt – "

Too late.

Catman, slightly pulling his mask up, has his lips already planted on Mikan's even before she could finish. Mikan struggles to break free as she tries to scream but it ends up no use since he already had an arm tightly wrapped around her waist and her lips locked in a deathly crush against his. It feels nothing like kissing, but then again the boy's lips were just really soft and –

Oh what was she thinking?

A new kind of fury boils inside Mikan. But just when she's about to give him another taste of her signature defense (mostly offense) maneuver she always did on boys, Catman spins the both of them around, and after a split second or so, Mikan finds herself now in the place where the boy used to be; back against the wall. Then he pulls away – only from the kiss though.

An awkward pause gives Mikan the chance to catch her breath and fully assess the situation. The newfound rage inside her flares dangerously. She bellows, "_WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?"_

The boy all but chuckles. He pulls his cat mask down to his face again, smug.

_"And my mouth wasn't even OPEN!"_

It takes a late second for Mikan to realize the mistake she just made. Her hands fly up to her mouth just as a long, faint beep sounds from inside the crate next to her.

Again, too late. Like a replay of yesterday's events, the perpetrator swings his foot and in a strong strike the crate's front side reduces into a hundred little splinters. Then he reaches for a shiny black cylinder the size of a cooking pot in the wreckage and pops it open, retrieving the wooden box – not anymore sealed – hidden inside.

It all happened so fast Mikan is barely aware of the fact that the boy leans in closer again.

"You're a lousy kisser," he whispers.

He takes off right away afterwards, darting onto the crates blocking the bottom half of the room's only exit with the box tucked under his arm.

"You come back here!"

_BANG!_

An explosion.

...Of color.

Just as Mikan gets to the opening, a wide array of fireworks set off before her in a splendid display of live explosions and color. But the loud sounds and bright outbursts do more than just stun and petrify the her to the spot. It also shakes the rusted tin roof, making it dangerously groan and screech above them. From behind the shower of sparks and hand protectively cupped over her eyes, she sights the boy making it safely outside the warehouse. She concentrates on teleporting to that exact location.

_Come on now..._ she silently prays. She closes her eyes. For a short moment, she feels herself flying through space, and the next, she sees herself standing right at the boardwalk outside the warehouse.

To her right, she sees Catman sprint off into the night. She's about to run after him when she gets disoriented by the very loud sound of something shuddering and clanging defeaningly to the ground. Slowly, she turns to see the wreckage.

The roof had just fallen off, as expected after being blasted at by fifty pounds of lethal, rainbow-colored ammunition. Dust envelopes the vicinity, leaving a scent of grimy, burnt rust in the briny air.

Great, now all Mikan needs is a fire. A real, big one.

_BANG!_

Mikan's knees buckle, and she weakens as she watches one entire Z hideaway get engulfed in flames.

She is about to pass out but not before calling after the boy. "YOU OWE ME A WAREHOUSE, YOU JERK!"

* * *

**Day 3: R&R Thursday/Doomsday, 1600 hours**

_"So you're saying I went through all that trouble for a pair of cotton socks?"_

Tsubasa trembles slightly under his junior's smoldering glare. "_Erm..._yes. Those w-were the principal's g-growing-up socks y-you see and they probably meant everything to him a-and stealing them away from h-him would...yeah, you get the point."

"That's it." Natsume gets up and cracks his knukles. "Now this one's personal – and I don't mean Persona."

Still shaken, Tsubasa manages, "B-but why then, Natsu?"

Natsume turns to scowl at him with the darkest expression on his face. The air around them rises to a few degrees. "I said it's personal."

"What's got you so worked up about it anyway?"

This somehow snaps Natsume back to reality. If he presses that he really needs to burn the Elementary School Principal to a crisp right now, it will only leave the Shadow Idiot even more curious. Quite obviously, need no one know of the deeds he was led to do last night.

"Besides, Persona needs that guacamole and vanishing cream by tonight," Tsubasa says. He sits up straight and looks at Natsume pointedly.

Natsume rolls his eyes. "Fine then. But I'm not gonna be rubbing cream on anybody soon when I get back."

Tsubasa winces, as if remembering something. "You're vicious."

A second later, he yelps when his blue tartan cap suddenly catches fire.

**:o**

If you were made to choose between going swimming with the Kraken or grocery shopping for Persona, picking the Kraken over Persona would be a picnic in a park. Aside from having to withstand the common scrutiny and held back (or not held back) fits of laughter when you're out getting his eyeliner and moisturizing lipstick in Goth Black #3, you get assigned to buy plenty more oddball items that arouse the raised eyebrow, sometimes the occasional "You're sick, man!" comment.

That's why when Hyuuga Natsume walks out of the store with a bag full of things he can't even name plus some guacamole and a bottle of vanishing cream, he hopes that nothing worse happens to him on the way back – not that things could get any more horrible than this. He sighs as he struggles with the heavy shopping bag in his arms and takes a few steps down the sidewalk.

"Watch out you dol – _AHH!_"

_CLANG!_

When Natsume opens his eyes, the first thing he notices is the green gunk in his hair. Then he feels something slightly heavy on him. So besides the cold coffee drenching his shirt and the scent of vanilla citronella lingering in the air, the girl on top of him is the next thing he sees.

_"AHH!"_

The girl quickly pushes herself off him and gets up. Natsume takes a good look at her as he gets up as well. Somehow, her vanishing cream-glopped chocolate brown hair and her bright, furious hazel eyes are all-too familiar to him.

_"Spot?"_

The girl narrows her eyes at him. "What do you mean?" she asks him suspiciously, almost nervous.

Natsume takes another good look at her.

A girl in pigtails. The highly-notorious Anti-Alice Organization sends a girl in pigtails in do their work for them now. Seriously? He doubts it right away.

"Never mind, you're nothing like her."

But then she says: "I don't know what you're talking about," in that unmistakable indignant sniff, and suddenly Natsume realizes he wasn't wrong the first time.

"So the highly-notorious Anti-Alice Organization sends a girl in pigtails in to do their work for them now. Seriously?"

Her eyebrows furrow. Frustrated, she says, "What? Can't an agent trained in Ninjutsu, judo, and nine different types of martial arts, working underground for some highly-infamous sexist cronies, and taught the art of international espionage since age eight enjoy a good _frappe _on R&R Thursday?"

Natsume never knew he could be at such a loss of words. He swallows, and tries to keep a smooth face. "Well, as much as I would want a _frappé_ right now – not considering the fact that I've got it all over my clothes – I go grocery shopping for my evil, sadistic mentor on the days I don't risk my life and all."

"Sheesh, you're something," Sunspot mutters. She picks a blob of vanishing cream from her hair and looks at it, then at Natsume, then back to it again, frowning.

"So are you going to pay for all this, Sunspot?"

"Who you callin' – oh. You must be Black Kitty then."

"Black Cat," Natsume corrects her gruffly.

Putting a finger to her chin, Sunspot looks up as if in deep thought. "Cat?" She gazes back down at Natsume, her eyes and tone mocking. "So does that stand for some subliminal cautionary acronym? Like Creepy Awkward Teen?"

A smirk slowly creeps its way onto Natsume's face. Sunspot scoots away a bit. "So Sunspot, huh?" Natsume muses. "Did they name you that because you're mostly brown and stand out or was it a referral to the pattern of your underwear?"

Sunspot blushes madly, her expression really annoyed. She puffs her cheeks and walks toward Natsume, jabbing a finger at his chest. "I – You owe me a _frappé_!_"_

"Well that's my mentor's vanishing cream all over your hair."

"And that's my large non-fat-triple-foam-double-espresso-shot-mocha-caramel-swirl _frappé _all over your shirt!_"_

"So you're saying I should take my shirt off and –"

"_No no no!_ That is so not my point _you cocky bastard!_" Sunspot screeches, her face still red.

Natsume chortles darkly. He eyes Sunspot, slightly interested.

"Persona's going to have your head because it still has your vanishing-cream glopped hair attached to it, then," he says matter-of-factly.

"That goes both ways, then! You spill my _frappé, _I _frappe _your tuckus," Sunspot tells him, her voice foreboding.

"Ooh, scary. I'll be going then. It's a shame your bike had such a lousy driver." Natsume walks away, leaving despite the mess behind him and the guacamole in his hair.

"YOU STILL OWE ME A WAREHOUSE, YOU JERK!" Mikan bellows after him as she wags her fist in the air. Several people look at her, then at the boy she was screaming at who was now walking far ahead of her.

"Don't count on it, Polka."

* * *

**Two years later: First Day of School/Doomsday Pt. II, 800 Hours**

On the morning of their first day of senior high, Natsume enters his dorm, beat up and exhausted from yet another life-endangering mission. His bed looks very inviting right now, but he decides there's no time since he clearly remembers promising Ruka he'd attend school today.

And so casting aside the numerous bruises and stinging cuts all over his body, he heads to the bath and takes a quick shower. Then he gets dressed and heads out, tired and all.

**:o**

"Good morning my dear senior high children!"

In front of Natsume, Mochu grumbles something unintelligible. Their homeroom adviser for senior year is none other than Narumi – yet again. No wonder more than half of the class grumbled along with Mochu as well.

"– So aside from that, dear children, this year we'll be having – "

"What's with the disco outfit, Naru-sensei?" Kitsuneme, who has a firsthand view on Narumi's ridiculous get-up, abruptly asks him dead on.

Narumi beams a hundred-watt beam. "That is an excellent question, Kitsu-kun. You see, minna-san, today we will be also welcoming a new member of our class."

Half of the students start murmuring amongst themselves. It isn't everyday that a new student comes along, especially if he or she is discovered to have an Alice at this late a time. Some students, along with Natsume, however, don't seem to care at all.

"Now, now. Everybody say hi to Sakura Mikan."

Daring to look up was dreadful. And in that moment, Natsume realizes that her chocolate brown hair and bright hazel eyes are too familiar for their own good.

He stiffens, sitting up. He doesn't pay attention to Narumi's introduction because his eyes train themselves on the girl's face. Almost right away, Mikan catches Natsume's eye and smiles wickedly for a split second.

"So then, why don't you take a seat beside Natsume-kun and Ruka-kun now, Sakura-chan?" Narumi says.

"Oh that would be great, Naru-sensei " —most of the girls glare at her— "you're too kind, really," she says happily.

Narumi blushes. "Oh-ho-ho, not too kind now, child, you're making me blush."

"Eww," Koko mutters.

"Wow, that's amazing," Ruka murmmurs. Natsume turns towards him to see a slightly pink Ruka.

A sudden idea comes to him.

"You need to go the boy's room, Ruka," Natsume says brusquely. He keeps his peripherals focused on Mikan now walking up the aisle towards the back of the room.

"Wha – "

"You need to go. _Now._"

Ruka doesn't need any more telling as his hand immediately shoots up and he quickly stands. "Narumi-sensei, may I go to the washroom?"

"Certainly, Ruka-kun."

And with that, the blonde-haired boy stumbles his way down the aisle right away. Natsume watches this for a while before getting back to his manga.

"Nice manga you've got there," a voice comes up right beside him.

Natsume doesn't bother to look up at her. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"I got tired of those non-Alice boarding schools," she replies nonchalantly. From the corner of his eyes, Natsume sees her arranging her pencils on the desk.

"Yeah, right."

"Looks like somebody's beat up from last night," she suddenly comments. A pencil rolls off the table but she quickly catches it with ease though she weakly winces.

"You're one to talk." Natsume turns a page of his manga.

Mikan laughs quietly; the sound of wind softly blowing on a chime. "Looks like your still alive butt will be seeing me in the World War II auction tomorrow then."

"Guess so. Dress nice for a full-on whooping."

"Bring it on, Kitty," Mikan says, a trace of an amused grin in her voice.

"I'll make sure of that, Spot." Natsume slightly smirks.

From out of the blue, Mochu turns to them and looks at Mikan. "How you doin'?"

"Not on your life, Mochiage."

* * *

**Glossary of Terms (powered by Merriam Webster and yours truly):**

_**Frappé **__\fra-__ˈ__pā\_

_(n.) chilled or partly-frozen drink_

_(v.) to strike or hit_

_**Jeté **__\zhə-__ˈ__tā\_

_(v.) to leap_

_**Ariisha-chan \a-rə-sha-chan\**_

_**(n.) My awesome little sister who recently celebrated her birthday last May 6. You should go PM her a belated Happy Birthday. (:**_

_**(for further reference, see Amazing, Fricktastic, and more related terms)**_

_**Review **__\re-vyooh\_

_(n.) happiness_

_(for further reference, see Inspire, Glee, and more related terms)_

Hope you guys liked that then. :D (To Lili: I'm _soso_sorry I only got to post this now. Internet problems. TT_TT)


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